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Content Marketing
17 Ways To Create Blog Posts That Get Attention
17 Ways To Create Blog Posts That Get Attention
You can put a lot of content up on your blog, but your blog isn’t going to be successful if no one is reading the content.
That’s why one of the biggest keys to your success is to create engaging content that attracts readers and keeps them coming back to your blog again and again.
Here’s how to do it…
1. Give Your Audience What They Want
The first thing you need to do is understand what your audience wants. In other words, what sort of content are they already consuming? Here’s how to figure this out:
- Find out what sort of infoproducts they’re buying. Check bestsellers on marketplaces such as Amazon.com, Udemy.com. ClickBank.com and JVZoo.com.
- See what topics get a lot of traction on social media.
- Check question and answer sites to see what’s popular, including Quora.com, Yahoo! Answers, and JustAnswer.com.
- Browse niche groups (on Facebook) and forums to see what topics keep popping up again and again.
- Read your competitors’ blogs to see which topics get a lot of discussion and social media shares.
- Ask your audience what they’d like to learn more about.Check your own blog to see what topics you’ve posted about in the past that have generated a lot of interest.
Next…
2. Write For Your Audience
In order to write for your audience, you need to understand exactly who they are. You’ll need to do some research to uncover their demographics, and then spend some time reading niche discussions and talking to your audience to learn more about them.
Here’s what you want to know:
- Age
- Gender
- Where they live.
- Marital status.
- Kids or not.
- Rent or own.
- Income level.
- Education level.
- Biggest niche challenges/obstacles/pain points.
- Solutions they’ve tried.
- Why those solutions haven’t worked.
- What they want.
- What motivates them.
- Where they get their niche information.
- Their niche level (beginner, intermediate, expert).
Next…
3. Catch Attention With Titles
Engagement starts with your blog titles, which is why you need to invest time creating benefit-driven titles with a little razzle dazzle to catch attention.
For example, “How to Lose Weight” shares a benefit. It’s descriptive, but it’s also a little boring.
In order to catch attention, you need to add a little razzle dazzle. E.G., “The Weird Weight Loss Trick That Shook Hollywood (Psst, It Will Work for You Too!)”
By the way, if you are serious and want to take your blogging to the next level, check out the Rapid Blogging Blueprint. This is a premium level training that takes you through each and every step of setting up your own highly profitable blog and profiting from it. You can check it out here.
Next…
4. Open With A Bang
You need to capture attention right away, which is why your opener should work hard to get and keep your audience’s attention. You can do this by:
- Building anticipation by adding a “key points” section in your opener.
- Telling a story right away.
- Providing a startling fact or statistic.
- Busting a myth, or sharing other unexpected information.
- Sharing a really good tip right away to build interest.
- Posting an interesting quote (from a famous person).
- Showing that you understand the reader and their problem, such as by empathizing with the reader.
Next…
5. Create “You”-Centered Content
Your content needs to be all about your readers, specifically with regards to their problems and how to solve them. Unfortunately, some bloggers tend to make their content more about themselves, such as how they discovered a particular tip or trick.
Yes, you do need to talk about yourself from time to time, such as when you share your credentials or you tell an engaging story. However, you want to be sure to pivot immediately back to your readers to keep the focus on them.
Here’s a quick way to check if you’re focused on your readers: see how many times you use words like “you” and “your,” versus words centered on yourself (such as I, me, and mine). Rewrite author-oriented content to make it more about the reader.
For example, “I’ll share my favorite weight-loss trick” is author-oriented. You can rewrite it to change the focus like this: “You’ll discover a proven weight-loss trick.”
6. Avoid Passive Language
Passive language is where you craft sentences so that the subject receives an action, rather than the subject performing an action. Readers tend to find it tedious and boring to read this sort of content.
Here’s an example of a passive sentence: The dog must be walked five times per day.
You’d rewrite it to make it active, like this: You must walk the dog five times per day.
7. Engage Readers With Stories
One really good way to engage readers on an emotional level is to draw them in with a story.
For example, you can write a story about how you or someone else in the niche overcame the same problem as your readers.
Another example: You might share a heartwarming story, or even a story about an embarrassing moment. These stories build rapport.
Still one more example: if you’re trying to share a lesson, share it in the form of a story. It makes it both more engaging and memorable.
8. Ask Questions To Engage Readers
You can ask questions in the beginning, middle or end of your content to engage readers and encourage them to interact. For example:
- Have you ever _______?
- Do you ever feel ________?
- How would you feel?
- What is your favorite tip?
- What is the hardest part of _______?
- What do you think?
- What would you do?
Next…
9. Build Anticipation And Curiosity
Starting in the beginning and sprinkled throughout your content, you’ll want to build anticipation and curiosity for what’s coming.
For example: “In just a moment, you’ll discover the #1 way to get 1000 visitors in the next 24 hours. But first…”
Likewise, if you have a blog series, then be sure to build anticipation for the other articles in the series.
E.G., “Tomorrow you’ll find out which food you should NEVER eat if you want to lose weight – and chances are, you’ve already eaten it this week!”
10. Make Your Audience Smile
If you can make your audience feel something (especially a positive emotion), you’re going to have their full attention. One way to do this is to inject some humor (sparingly) into your content to make your audience smile and chuckle.
Before you start cracking jokes in your content, be sure that you’ve researched your audience, and you understand them.
What people find humorous is subjective, and it also differs across cultures. Indeed, what you find funny may be outright offensive to others, so keep your humor G-related and appropriate.
11. Serve Up Unique Content
One really good way to keep readers engaged is to give them content they’ve never seen before. Elsewhere in these guides, we’ve talked about how to create unique content, such as by sharing unique case studies, stories, and even creating formulas to teach step-by-step content.
Here’s another idea: use fresh comparisons to explain concepts and even step-by-step processes.
In some cases, the actual how-to information you’re sharing isn’t unique. However, the way you position and present the information can be unique – and that’s exactly what will keep readers engaged.
Let’s suppose you’re writing about customer retention. Most of your competitors are going to list and explain all the components of creating satisfied customers. You can make your content unique by comparing customer retention to the Hollywood red-carpet VIP treatment. It’s a simple thing, but it makes your content more interesting, and it stands out from other similar content.
12. Be Concise
If you want to keep readers engaged, then cut out all the fluff and filler. If a page, a paragraph, or even a sentence isn’t necessary to getting your point across, then delete it. You want to keep your content concise and “meaty,” which will keep readers engaged.
One good way to keep your content focused is to create an outline before you write. The key here is to make this outline as detailed as possible.
Not only should you list the major steps and points you want to cover, but you can also list substeps, tips, examples and so on. Then once you start writing, stick to your outline, and delete anything that veers from this outline.
13. Use A Friendly Tone
If you remember reading a few textbooks during your school days, you might also remember some pretty yawn-inducing passages. The problem? These textbook writers shared information, but they didn’t seem all that interested in connecting with readers. While their writing may be technically correct, it’s boring.
Naturally, you’ll want to avoid this sort of stilted, textbook-style writing.
One way to connect with your readers is to write with a friendly, conversational tone.
Think of how you’d write to a friend, and share your content in a similar manner. (This guide is an example of writing with a friendly tone – note how this content isn’t speaking above anyone, it’s not pretentious, and it doesn’t try to impress with big words and complex sentence structure.)
14. Offer Quick Wins
A quick win is a tip or other bit of information that someone can apply fairly quickly, and then get fairly quick results too. Your readers should be able to instantly recognize the value of the information and how quickly they’ll get good results if they apply it.
For example, if you’re sharing information to beginning marketers about how to find a niche, you might teach them to use a keyword tool to find niches they never knew existed (e.g., enter partial searches such as “how to ____” and “get rid of” and “secrets of”).
Your audience can literally apply that information instantly, and in minutes have a list of potential niches to explore.
Quick wins keep your readers engaged on the current blog post they’re reading, as they’ll be eagerly searching for other gold nuggets of information. However, making a habit of providing quick wins in your posts also keeps readers engaged with your blog as a whole and coming back for more.
15. Insert Awesome Visuals
Another way to engage readers is by inserting useful, polished graphics. This includes:
- Infographics.
- Tables.
- Charts.
- Illustrations.
- Screenshots.
- Photos.
- GIFs.
And similar images.
For example, you might include an infographic to make data-heavy information easier to understand.
Another example: you might include a photo or illustration that shows someone how to do something (such as the proper way to stand when doing a weight-lifting exercise such as a squat).
Need a real-life example to view right now? Take a look at the articles on BuzzFeed.com. You’ll see that many of them include memes and GIFs to keep readers interested and hooked until the end.
Point is, a good visual can attract the eye and draw the reader back into the text, and it can also add a lot of value to the content. Either way, good visuals engage readers!
16. Share Tips And Examples
Another way to add value while engaging readers is to generously provide plenty of tips and examples in your content.
As an example, take a look at #15 above. The instruction was to provide visuals in your blog posts.
You then got a list of seven examples of different types of visuals you can create, along with specific examples of some of those seven types.
17. Format For Easy Readability
If people come to your blog and see a wall of text, they’re going to hit the back button without even bothering to begin reading your content. That’s why you need to format your content for easy readability, which is a crucial key to engaging readers.
Check out these tips:
- Break up long list paragraphs by using bulleted lists instead (like this one).
- Use short sentences and short paragraphs.
- Insert graphics to help break up long passages of text.
- Utilize headings and subheadings to provide white space and highlight important information.
You should also ensure your blog uses a responsive theme with a column layout. This ensures that when people read your articles on a mobile device, the article text takes up the entire screen (that’s desirable on small screens).
On the other hand, if someone is reading your article on a large desktop monitor, you do NOT want the article to take up the entire screen, as it’s difficult to read content across a large screen.
The content should cover part of the screen, and the sidebar should cover the remaining part. Again, use a responsive theme, which will resize your columns for easy readability, depending on the device.
Now a few parting thoughts…
Conclusion
The people with the biggest, most popular and most profitable blogs are also the folks who know how to craft engaging content.
If you’re looking to find that sort of success with your blog, then I highly recommend you putting these 17 keys for crafting engaging content to work for you.
If you really want to know more about the power of blogging, you can take a look at the Rapid Blogging Blueprint training course or if you just want a few pointers for now you can grab the featured resource below for a free blogging report; download, read it and take action 🙂
7 Tips To Succeed In Affiliate Marketing
7 Tips To Succeed In Affiliate Marketing
Anyone can find success in affiliate marketing but not every person who joins such a program succeeds.
It’s all about using the available resources to achieve the best possible results.
These are some of the tips that can help beginners become successful affiliates and make some good income from such ventures.
1. Carve Out A Niche
This is a very critical factor in affiliate marketing. It is important that you identify a specific market or segment that you want to work in and then focus on that.
Carving out a niche for yourself means choosing what works best for you and an area that can actually give you good income.
The internet has so many users and the competition for attention is always stiff.
2. Carefully Select Your Merchants
It is important to carry out thorough research before agreeing to work with a specific merchant. This is because those who sell consumers inferior products risk losing future business opportunities.
Even if you played no part in manufacturing the product, as a publisher, customers will still hold you responsible as the person who introduced the product to them.
You should also work with merchants who are reputable and actually pay commissions on time. Can you imagine constantly following up with a company to remit your dues even after you’ve brought it business? It’s utterly frustrating and demoralizes the affiliates.
Work with a brand that holds up its end of the deal without additional pressure.
3. Use Captivating Content
When promoting products on your website, customers first get to interact with other content before being directed to a link and ultimately the merchant’s website.
That means that the content that you create for visitors to your site should be relevant and captivating so that they feel convinced enough to click on the link and eventually buy the product.
First impressions are everything and if you don’t get them right then your marketing attempts will always flop.
4. Keep Track Of Results
Do not just push for sales without analyzing your performance. Tracking your results includes monitoring feedback from consumers and checking the amount of sales made on a monthly basis.
This will help you make a decision on whether you need a new marketing strategy or if it’s time to find another merchant.
You can’t keep on selling a product that people just don’t want to buy.
5. Dedication
Affiliate programs are great avenues for making money but success does not come easy for a publisher.
You must be dedicated and stay focused on building lasting networks and increasing your customer base. Once that is done, the money will start rolling in and realizing success will actually be possible.
The problem with most beginners is that they want to make quick money but are not willing to put in work.
6. Sell Products That You Believe In
It is very easy to sell a product that you’ve actually used yourself or believe in.
You will be making a sales pitch from an informed point of view and that always resonates well with customers.
Don’t be tempted to recommend a product just to get an affiliate commission because if the product is poor, your buyers won’t forget that you recommended it to them.
7. Update Your Site
To increase the visibility of your site by getting high rankings on search engines, you must constantly update the contents using target key words and relevant information. That will then help drive traffic to it.
Content marketing is a continuous process, but you need relevant, up to date content to attract traffic and hopefully buyers.
You can create content yourself, outsource it or curate content from other sources (always attribute the source with a ink to the original).
How Can You Find Affiliate Programs?
I think one of the most fundamental questions that most people interested in becoming affiliates ask is about where to find products to promote.
There are several affiliate programs available but it’s always advisable to choose what would best work for you. That increases the possibility of becoming successful in the venture because it reduces the strain caused by pushing brands that you are not comfortable with.
These are some of the best ways to find a suitable affiliate program for beginners and even for those who are already considered veterans in the sector.
Well Established Affiliate Networks
This would be the most ideal place to start because such networks are usually well organized and trusted.
Well established networks are typically large and have existing relationships with some of the biggest brands. Chances are that if you are searching for an affiliate program to drive the sales of a common brand, you’ll most likely find it being run through established affiliate networks.
Some of these networks include but not limited to:
- Linkshare
- Commission Junction
- Shareasale
- Pepperjam Network
- Google affiliate networks
- JVzoo
- Warriorplus
Such networks are great because they have a well-established working relationship with the big companies that pay good money. It’s a safe place for a beginner to start his or her affiliate marketing career.
They charge the merchants commissions for linking them up with affiliates which means that your pay as a publisher will be relatively reduced to carter for their commission payment.
Familiar Product
You can always start by promoting a brand that you use yourself or are well aware of. It’s always easy to sell what you already believe in as opposed to just trying to convince customers to buy a product that you’ve never even used before.
You can check the sites of your favorite brands and see if they have affiliate programs.
It’s a safe bet and somehow a familiar ground even for beginners.
Independent Affiliate Programs
These are programs that are run by the merchants themselves using affiliate software to take care of the technical aspects of the system.
In some cases, they may outsource program managers to manage the affiliate program as they concentrate on core business functions.
The advantage of independent affiliate networks is that the pay is much better since they don’t use middlemen. However if the program is not properly managed it can be a disaster due to lack of creativity and delayed payments.
They are still the best though especially if you find one that is well managed and pays attention to the needs of the publishers. They are not easy to find but you can use keywords on search engines to find them.
E-Product Networks
These promote products that are downloaded rather than shipped like e-books and other programs.
Some of these networks include Clickbank, e-junkie and Avangate.
Just make sure that the product you are promoting will give customers value for money and it’s not just some way to mint cash out of them through false advertising. Most e-products have this issue.
These are some of the ways in which you can find and join an affiliate program. They are not exhaustive, but they are among some of the best options.
I hope these affiliate marketing tips have helped, and if you want to know more about affiliate marketing check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
10 Blog Posts You Can Create In 10 Minutes
10 Blog Posts You Can Create In 10 Minutes
No matter what kind of business you run online, there’s a good chance you have a blog. And if you have a blog, then you need a lot of content.
But here’s the problem…
It takes a lot of time to create that content. If you outsource it, then it’s going to take a lot of money. Either way, creating content is a big investment.
Until now…
If you think you can’t create great content fast, think again. That’s because you’re about to discover 10 types of blog posts you can create in 10 minutes or less.
By the way, if you are serious and want to take your blogging to the next level, check out the Rapid Blogging Blueprint. This is a premium level training that takes you through each and every step of setting up your own highly profitable blog and profiting from it. You can check it out here.
Take a look…
1. Create Articles Out Of PLR
Sometimes you might purchase PLR (private label rights) articles that you can minimally tweak and post right to your blog. In other cases, you might take excerpts out of PLR reports or ebooks, and then post these excerpts on your blog. Either way, it takes just minutes to create something unique and post it for your readers.
Here are some other tips for using PLR to create content:
- Use the transcripts from a PLR video to create an article for your blog. These transcripts may be included with the package, or you can create your own.
TIP: This is particularly easy if the video includes slides, as you can simply create your article from the content of the slides.
- Compile multiple pieces of PLR content to create something entirely new. For example, you might take excerpts out of three or four PLR articles to create an entirely new article.
And speaking of excerpts…
2. Take Excerpts From Your Products
Obviously, this is a super-quick way to create an article. But the other bonus of this particular strategy is that you can quickly insert a pitch at the end of the article to promote the full product.
Now, there are two ways to use these excerpts:
- One way is to simply pull the excerpt directly out of the product, create an introduction and conclusion, and post it on your blog.
For example, let’s suppose you have a report that lists ten strategies for cutting calories. You can excerpt out three to five of these strategies to create your article. Then at the end of the article, you can pitch the paid report as the place to get more of these great strategies.
- The second way is to cut some of the meat off the excerpt so that people will want to buy the product to get all the details.
Let’s take the example of the report with ten strategies again. This time you excerpt out all ten strategies, but you edit out some of the details. So readers will get an article that tells them what to do, but they don’t get the exact instructions of how to do it. They’ll need to purchase the product to get those exact instructions.
Next…
3. Make Link Lists
A link list can come in a variety of formats, including:
- A gear list. These are tools you use that you’d recommend to others. It saves beginners a lot of time and money, since they don’t have to do as much research.
For example, you might list all the plugins you use on your blog. Or if you’re writing to bodybuilders, you might make a list of all the “must use” supplements.
- A list of free resources. Here you might link to blog posts, reports, videos and other free sources of content to help your readers achieve some specific goal.
- A list of paid resources. In this case, you’d write a short review for each resource to let people know who can use it and its benefits.
- A mix of paid and free resources. For example, “The Top 10 Resources Every Aspiring Copywriter Ought to Read.”
Again, the point is to save your reader time by doing some of the legwork and research for them. It’s much easier to get recommendations and content all in one place from a trusted source, rather than having to find products and sources yourself, and then have to separate the wheat from the chaff besides.
Next…
4. Recap Your Recent Posts
The idea here is to create an “in case you missed it” list of your best posts in the last couple weeks or months. Of course you don’t need to just list blog posts. Instead, you can curate your own content across platforms, including your social media accounts and newsletters.
Another way to do it is by curating your best (recent) content around a very specific topic.
For example:
- Five Blog Posts That Will Change the Way You Think About Dieting
- The Three Posts Every Beginner Marketer Ought to Read
- The Five Keys to Improving Your Golf Score
All you have to do is write an intro to the post, list the resources along with a short explanation of why people should read each resource, and then wrap it up with a quick conclusion.
Next up…
5. Interview Someone
Here’s a great way to create content fast: let someone else create the content for you.
In this case, simply work up a list of questions by email and let your interviewee’s answers become your article. In exchange, your interviewee gets a byline with a link back to their site.
Here’s an example email to send to land these interviews…
Subject Line: I’d like to feature you on my blog, [name]
Hi [First Name],
My name is [Your Name], and I run the popular [type of] blog over at [domain]. The reason I’m writing today is because I’d like to interview you and feature this interview on the blog.
The interview is just [small number] questions, so it would only take about [small number of minutes] to complete.
In return, you’d get a byline and link back to your site, along with exposure to my [number] of readers and visitors. I’ll also send out the link to my [number] of newsletter subscribers and [number] social media followers.
If you agree that this sounds like a great way to showcase your business to a targeted audience, just reply back and I’ll send over the questions right away.
I look forward to hearing from you!
[sign off]
——-
Remember this: the easier it is for someone to comply with your request, the more likely it is that they’ll say yes. So don’t make your interviewee have to spend hours answering questions. Instead, shoot a couple quick questions their way that they can answer in just minutes. Then if you want more info, send a couple follow up questions.
Here’s why…
Once a person has answered your initial questions, they’ll feel invested and committed to your project. So if you ask for 10 more minutes of their time to answer a couple additional questions, they’re very likely to say yes.
6. Tweak A Previous Article
The next idea is to comb through your existing content, find popular articles, tweak them, and republish the new version.
For example:
- If you previously published a list of ten tips, then excerpt out five of those tips, expand on them, and republish the new article.
- Update an old article with new information, such as new research that has come on the scene since you originally published it.
- Have you changed your mind about a product, idea or other topic? Update an older article with your revised opinion.
Those are just three ways to take your existing content and turn it into something new. Be creative, and you may be able to create dozens of new articles from your old content.
7. Turn Existing Content Into An Infographic
Another good way to quickly create content is to simply change your existing content into a different format. And one way to do this is by turning an article into an infographic.
Here are examples of articles that would make good infographics:
- An article discussing multiple ways to boost conversion rates on a website.
- An article explaining how metabolism works.
- An article that talks about different garden pests and how to get rid of them using organic pest control methods.
Just be sure your infographic includes social media buttons next to it, because this is the kind of content people really like to share.
8. Ask For Content From A Vendor
Are you an affiliate for a product or service? Then one great way to quickly get your hands on some free content is by asking the product vendor to supply it for you.
Your first stop is to check the affiliate center, if one is available. That’s where the vendor has likely supplied affiliates with all sorts of content, including blog posts.
However, you want unique content, right? So don’t go straight to the blog post category, as all the other affiliates are likely copying and pasting those articles to their blogs. Instead, look at other content such as reports, emails and similar. Find something suitable, and then ask the vendor if you can modify it for your blog, such as taking an excerpt out of a report.
If you’re not finding what you like within the affiliate center, then write to the vendor and request an article. The vendor is more likely to give you content – especially exclusive content – if you’ve already proven yourself to be a good affiliate.
TIP: Here’s a powerhouse combo you can use to promote affiliate products while getting unique content for free: ask the vendor for an interview. Most vendors will be happy to get the exposure and extra sales. You can post a text interview, or you might even consider doing a short webinar or podcast.
9. Do Multimedia Posts
So far we’ve been talking about how to quickly create text articles. However, you don’t need to write a single word if you don’t want to.
Instead, pick up a camera to do a quick video on the topic of your choice.
TIP: You can also simply turn on a microphone to do a quick podcast. You don’t even need expensive tools, as a simple tool like Audacity will let you capture and edit audio for free. You can get this tool at http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/files/.
For example:
- Turn the camera on and just spend five minutes talking about your top five weight loss tips.
- Film yourself trying out and reviewing a new product.
- Give a demo on camera, such as how to teach a dog to sit.
- If you’d like to demo something on your screen, such as how to set up a blog, then use screen-recording software such as Camtasia.
Then all you have to do is upload the video to YouTube.com (for greater exposure), and then post the embedded video on your blog.
10. Copy And Paste Your Emails
One very good source for articles and other content are your own emails. Here I’m talking about two things:
- If you broadcast an announcement, article or other content to your mailing list, then put this content on your blog as well.
TIP: Let your newsletter readers know you’re posting the content on your blog, and then encourage them to click through and discuss the topic. - If you reply to a customer’s question and you realize it would make a good post, then use it. Naturally, you won’t use any of the customer’s identifying information. Instead, you might say something like this at the beginning of the post…
“Just about every week, the same question tends to pop up in my email from people just like you. Take a look and see if you’ve wondered about this topic too…”
Conclusion
As you just discovered, you don’t need to spend a lot of time creating great content. All you need is ten minutes or less, and you can have a blog post ready to go out the door.
In fact, I bet you can create one of these posts right now and get it up on your blog right away. Go ahead and see for yourself just how quick and easy it is to create content using these tactics.
If you really want to know more about the power of blogging, you can take a look at the Rapid Blogging Blueprint training course or if you just want a few pointers for now you can grab the featured resource below for a free blogging report; download, read it and take action 🙂
Authority Marketing – Creating Shareworthy Content
Authority Marketing – Creating Shareworthy Content
You know that if you want to increase your sales and expand your outreach, you need to position yourself as an authority in your market.
In a previous post on Authority Marketing, we talked about the importance of knowing your audience through market research so that you can position yourself in a way that people relate to, resonate with and believe in. And we also covered being where your audience is here.
One of the easiest ways to position yourself as an expert in your niche so you can maximize your outreach and income is to create share-worthy content.
What does this mean?
Shareworthy content is material that people feel compelled to send to others. They feel it’s incredibly useful or valuable in some way and they want others to know about it.
This is also called pillar content because it’s the strongest, most engaging material found on your website, blog or within your marketing campaigns and funnels.
Ideally, your content should always focus on 3 main things:
Connecting with your readers. Your content needs to resonate with your audience, so they begin to see you as an authority or expert on the topic. This means that your content needs to be well-researched, actionable and comprehensive.
Persuading your readers. Your writing needs to motivate them into taking action, even if that simply involves returning to your website again, subscribing to your newsletter or sharing your content with others.
In order to persuade readers, you need to earn their trust and convince them, through your content, that you are an expert on the topic and that they can learn something useful from you.
Exciting your readers. Your content should invoke excitement and convince people that you have something valuable to offer that will improve their lives in some way.
When people are excited about something, they naturally want to share it. They’ll talk about it to friends and family and spread your message amongst their own networking circles. This is how content goes viral!
So, begin by thinking about what your primary objective is.
- Do you want to write a piece of content that motivates someone to subscribe to your list?
- Will you require a specific action after someone reads your content?
- Is your content designed to garner attention and gain trust?
Identifying your content’s objective before you start writing it is extremely important and will ensure that your material is direct, informative and hits the target.
Once you know what your objective is, concentrate on conveying your message in a concise, direct manner.
Create exceptional, highly-targeted content that people will want to share because it speaks to them directly, communicates a positive message that supports your brand and demonstrates your knowledge on the topic.
And above all else, it explains to your audience what’s in it for them.
You want to gain the respect of your market so you can build an authority website that people turn to again and again, and you’ll do that by producing top-notch content that helps your audience in one specific way.
And if you are suffering from writer’s block and have no idea how to create shareworthy content, go to the source!
Spend some time reading content from authority websites and influencers in your market. Identify the thought and study their writing style, their voice and of course, the topics they focus the most time on.
Take down notes! Write down anything that comes to mind whether it’s an idea for a killer blog topic, or ideas regarding content structure, format and style. It’ll all come in handy later.
One great tool that makes it exceptionally easy to research your competition so you can find the top content in your niche, collaborate with influencers and gain access to content insights that will help you generate fresh ideas is by using BuzzSumo.
They offer a free version so check it out: http://www.BuzzSumo.com
Now let’s look at some platforms that can help you out…
Join ProfNet or HARO
These two platforms connect journalists with experts. HARO stands for Help a Reporter Out. These “matchmaking sites” hook journalists up with experts who can answer their questions and help them with their research.
ProfNet is designed for public relations experts who want to pitch their organizations to journalists. You set up your profile on the site and set preferences for which types of queries you’re interested in.
When a journalist is looking for sources to help cover that breaking news story, they’re going to look over their databases. If you match their criteria, they’ll contact you.
HARO will deliver an email three times daily (5:45am; 12:45pm: 5:00pm EST) to sources, listing dozens of queries from reporters looking for experts.
They’ll describe the type of story they’re working on and list what expertise they’re looking for. You can reply to the queries and give your qualifications.
Let them know why you’re the perfect person for that story. In addition, HARO is free but offers a paid selection with more filtering options.
There are a couple of other similar service as well. SourceBottle includes a searchable database of active queries so you can hook up with the right journalist. PitchRate is mainly for bloggers and website owners, but it’s the same sort of game: they’re looking for experts to comment or post articles on their sites.
Here’s some advice from a HARO writer (Ritka Puri):
Focus on the story instead of your bio. “I care about what the interviewee has to say and am less concerned with how many patents the person holds.”
Stick to the system. Don’t email your contact directly. They’re likely using the HARO system to organize their queries and an email will get misplaced.
Make and keep journalist relationships. When pitching, mention whether you’ve worked with a journalist before.
Answer the question in a direct way. Don’t just ask if they’d like to interview you. Give them a direct reply to their question so they can decide for themselves.
Be personable and helpful. Your contact should contain a friendly introduction, a fun fact, keywords or bullet points that describe your story, and humility!
And of course, you could create a press release that will not only help you gain authority but generate targeted traffic by helping you rank in the major search engines for relevant keywords.
Press releases are still incredibly viable marketing tools, so be sure to check them out. They’ll help you get attention, generate buzz and create brand awareness.
Here are a couple resources to look into:
And here are a couple of articles to help you create the most effective press release for your business:
https://neilpatel.com/blog/ironclad-rules-for-press
https://www.shopify.ca/blog/how-to-write-a-press-release
If you want to know more about leveraging the power of authority marketing, then check out the featured resource below for a free report that expands on this post; download, read and take action 🙂
Setting Up Your Own Affiliate Marketing Blog
Setting Up Your Own Affiliate Marketing Blog
When you decide to embark on an affiliate marketing career, an affiliate marketing blog is a must have strategy. It can seem a little overwhelming to set one up if you’re not technologically advanced but setting up a blog is actually pretty simple with a few easy steps and should be an integral part of your affiliate marketing plan
First, you’ll need to register a domain (use Namecheap). This is your website address – also known as your URL. Make sure you choose carefully when you choose your domain and see that it reflects the topic of the niche. You’ll have to pay a small fee each year to keep your domain name.
Second, you’ll need to set up hosting. A2 Hosting is one of the most economical and popular options for hosting and gives you great technical support. You’ll pay a monthly fee for hosting – unless you want to pay up front for a discount.
Once you have a domain and hosting, it’s time to set up your blog. The easiest way to do this is to use Fantastico. This is a program built into A2 Hosting that installs your blog on the website. It’s very user friendly and doesn’t require you to have a technical background.
You’ll need to choose a theme for your blog. There are many options – from very simple freebies to very detailed, paid custom designs. When you’re starting out, it’s best to choose a simple theme. Once you’re more comfortable with blogging, you may decide to install something more advanced.
WordPress offers free themes you can install onto your site. These are easy to use, and you’ll find that you can be up and running with your blog in a matter of minutes. After using Fantastico to install your blog theme, you’ll need to set up the blog settings.
It’s important to make sure your blog is set up to be searched by search engines. Under Settings, you’ll want to give your site a title and a tagline, which tells people what the site is about. You’ll also want to assign an email address and set up your date and time zone. Then you’ll need to decide how you want comments and posts to be displayed on your blog.
Finally, you’ll want to personalize your blog. You’ll select a header that reflects your niche. You’ll also want to create an about page so that people can understand who the author is. This is known as an About page. Make sure you share a photo so that readers can connect more personally with you. Create a disclaimer page that helps you abide by any legal rules or terms of service.
As you write posts, you’ll want to make sure that you’re personal and friendly and work to develop relationships with your readers. This is the best way to build a community of devoted readers who will trust your advice.
Setting up your own affiliate marketing blog is actually quite simple. As you go through the process, it will get easier. The more you work with your blog, the more you’ll understand about how it operates and how you can use your blog to promote products in your niche.
So, now you have your blog up and running, let’s have a look at the optimal way to do a product review, an integral part of your affiliate marketing strategy.
The Best Way To Review Info Products Online
While reviewing digital products isn’t completely different from tangible products, there are some differences in the best way to review info products online. First, you’ll want to purchase the product yourself and then begin to implement it.
You can’t really review an info product unless you’ve tried it yourself. But as you implement, you’ll want to document the entire process from beginning to end. Begin with the buying process. What did the sales page look like? What was the cost? How did the message affect you?
Then move on to the process of buying and downloading and explain how that went – including One Time Offers, Upsells and Downsells. In addition, look for customer service information and test it out. Even email the author of the product to see what kind of response time you receive. Write about all of these tasks as part of your review.
As you document the process you’ll want to share both your excitement about new ideas or strategies as well as any frustrations or disappointments you have with the product. You’ll want to share your feelings about the product as honestly as possible.
At the same time, you’ll want to avoid giving so much detail that your reader doesn’t need to buy the product. For one thing, it’s plagiarism to share someone else’s system once you’ve bought it. For another, consider the fact that you’re working as an affiliate marketer, and you want to encourage sales of the product.
Your review of an info product can take several days or even weeks depending on the product. You’ll want to write as you use the course so that you don’t have to back and remember what you were doing and how it was going.
As you implement the product, you should be open about what’s going well and what isn’t going smoothly. You should also make sure that you discuss any results you’re having. For example, if you purchased a course on list building, have you been able to actually increase the number of people on your list?
The cardinal rule for an info product is that you always have to be honest with your review. When you’re honest, your readers will be able to trust what you say. Then when you make positive reviews and recommendations you’ll have better sales.
If you’re dishonest and gloss over problems, your readers may discontinue their trust in your recommendations, and you’ll see a decline in your sales as well. The best way to review info products online is to share your experience openly and honestly – warts and all.
Now we’ve looked at the best way to do a review, let’s take a look at what you should avoid when doing any type of affiliate product review.
The Best Way To Ruin An Affiliate Product Review
As an affiliate marketer, it’s important to make sure that you don’t get in your own way and ruin an affiliate product review. First and foremost, you want to deliver a review that people can trust. That means you must be honest about what you’re promoting.
So the first rule of thumb is to make sure that you don’t lie in any of your reviews. If you say something is wonderful, but it turns out not to be, you’ll lose the trust of your readers. You can only make money with affiliate reviews if people trust what you have to say about the products.
That means that you’ll point out some things you like and point out criticisms as well. It could also mean that you just tell your readers there’s a bad product on the market. It’s better to miss out on possible commissions from that one product than to mislead people into wasting money.
As soon as you decide to lie and say that a product is perfect, you destroy your credibility. If you truly do love a product yet still find flaws, you can be honest about it. Just don’t try to pass off a product as perfect when you’re clear that it isn’t.
It’s also important to choose quality products to promote. You may think something is going to be great, but after you purchase it and take a look, you realize it doesn’t deliver quality. In that case, consider it a small loss of your time and money and move on to something better.
Don’t try to promote products that you know don’t deliver. When you recommend junk products to your readers, you won’t be trusted. You’ll diminish your reputation, and you’ll have trouble bringing in income from your reviews.
Instead, make sure that you’re always honest. Discuss the positive things about the product as well as the drawbacks. Promote products that are high quality and will deliver valuable information and tools to your readers.
With affiliate marketing, it’s important to build relationships and trust. When you have trust and recommend a product, people will be more likely to make purchases. But if you recommend shady products, your readers will not only hang on to their money, but they may even quit reading your recommendations.
The best way to ruin an affiliate product review is to be dishonest and promote bad products. But if you avoid these behaviors, you can build a following that will help you to bring in steady income.
Anyone can make a career out of affiliate marketing but not everyone who attempts to succeeds. You should be ready to work hard and choose those programs that are genuine and that will provide you with an opportunity to grow and use your blog to promote great products and keep your reviews honest.
I hope these affiliate marketing tips have helped, and if you want to know more about affiliate marketing check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
